A huge McDonald's fan who visit stores in Lincoln up to five times a week has been left exasperated after she was fined for staying nine minutes longer than she should have in the car park.

Karina Stewart-Moore was at the Gateway restaurant off Newark Road just outside of Lincoln eating and chatting with a friend when a week later she received a £50 fine through the post.

The maximum stay at a McDonald's car park is one hour 41 minutes but Miss Stewart-Moore had stayed for one hour 50 minutes.

The woman from North Hykeham believes McDonalds put in place the time limit to stop people parking there and going shopping elsewhere.

And she's questioned why the fast food outlet couldn't let her off - especially because she spent the whole hour and 50 minutes inside McDonald's itself.

McDonald's at Gateway Park in Lincoln where she was given the fine (Image: Google Traffic maps)

She said: "I'm a regular there, as I use McDonald's a lot just to get me through rough nights and to meet dates as I view it as somewhere safe.

"It seems loyalty to their business means nothing and you will still be charged for being a customer by the parking regulators they have hired, even if you're still in the premises.

"I was in the restaurant with a friend, and when you're there you don't automatically think that there will be a limit, especially if you don't get a ticket when you park up so you don't necessarily look at the exact time.

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A McDonald's spokesperson said: "We have parking restrictions in place at a number of our restaurants, with a time limit to ensure there is adequate parking for all of our customers. Where restrictions are in place, we work with industry-approved contractors to ensure they are clearly signposted and communicated.

"If a customer feels they have been wrongly ticketed, we encourage them to get in touch with the third party contractor who issued the ticket by the way of appeal."

They added that the tickets cannot be withdrawn at the restaurant manager's discretion.

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